The 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change began on Sunday and will conclude on 14 December 2018 in Katowice, Poland. The conference aims to finalise the practical implementation of the 2015 Paris Agreement.

The Tibetan leader who is a vocal advocate of climate change and environment degradation wrote, “Climate change is not a concern of just one or two nations. It is an issue that effects all humanity, and every living being on this earth. This beautiful place is our only home. We have to take serious action now to protect our environment and find constructive solutions to global warming.

“This is no longer a time to think only of “my nation” or “our continent” alone. There is a real need for a greater sense of global responsibility based on a sense of oneness of humanity,” the octogenarian Tibetan leader wrote.

Tibet has become an important space in the climate change debate with the ruling colonial power China sitting on strategically key spot that controls many of Asia’s rivers as well as dictating change in weather patterns that influence areas as far as Europe, according to scientists in the field.

A Tibetan delegate including Tempa Gyaltsen, environment researcher of the Tibet Policy Institute of the exile Tibetan government is attending the climate meet.